52 NOVEMDER. b, 1 9 b 5 ((Holy cow , We must be doing something- rig-hI!" bundle halfway. So, no help for it; in he come, mother naked, and there stood the Reverend's wife. Come over to help with the cleaning up, and she stood there with the mop and the bucket lIke she was turned to stone I don't think she ever got over it." Blushing and grin- ning, he set down his cup and went across to the kitchen window, where his smile was extinguished. "My word, she's moving, Mother. She'll be in your garden all right." "Oh, the devil," Ady wailed with temper "Oh, the dirt) devil. My poor flowers" "Flowers are tougher than you think. My mother said the first thIng through the mud after the '89 were the sweet peas. The old lady never forgot those sweet peas, standing up there pink and white, with not a mark on them." " D ' . d "o d on t mentIon mu to me, sal Ady. "N 0 use getting annoyed with it, Mother," he saId, but, watching the water creep under the garden gate and wreathe around the gateposts, he thought it was easy to give it an evil character, and when it began to lick the walls of the small shed near the fence he nearly gave vent to an exclamation of . . temper, and only the thought of what he had just said to Ady made hIm sup- press It. They stood without moving and without noticing the passing of time, which the movement of the flood, in fact, replaced-the large, silent, reliable timekeeper that made clocks insignifi- cant and the progress of daylight irrele- vant. Joe thought of nothing as he stood there-watching was work enough- untIl Ady, in a thin, irritable voice, as if she were exasperated by a long argu- ment, said, "It's never been into the h " a use. "There's always a first time. Reckon I might take up the carpet in the front ] . " room. ust In case. This was intended only as a formal recognition of outside events, however. He did not believe the water would come in, but he had begun to need a little insurance against it-like taking an umhrella to scare away the rain. "You put a meal on, Ady, while I'm at it," he said. It was hard work pushing and lift- ing the heavy old cedar furniture to free the carpet and then rolling the carpet up, but he worked off his nervous feeling doing it and took honest pleasure in the smell of eggs and bacon frying on the kitchen sto ve. When Ady called him to eat, she dId not mention the rising water until he started toward the window Then she said, "It's past the old high-water mark." "Only takes a minute to stop." He sat down at the table and began to eat slow- ly and steadily. "I'm going to curse myself for taking that carpet up The old bookcase gets heavIer every year, like a man's hones. I'll lay the carpet across the table here and put a couple of chaIrs under the d " en s. "It's moving so fast," said Ady. "I never knew it move so fast before." It had to be said some- time, of course, but Joe thought it could have been put off for a while yet. "Always runs fast and runs a way fast," he said, choosIng with composure the losing side of the argu- ment. "It's to do with the lie of the land. Not like the flat country, where it lies stinking for weeks." "Not so fast as this," she said, stub- born and peevish. "You be right and I'll be wrong," he answered with belittling good h u- mor, intending to annoy her. She should have held her tongue in the first place. Pushing his empty plate away, he said, "Call me when the tea's made. I'll finish with the carpet." Before he had finished, Ad y was at h d . " l " . . O d t e oor, saYIng, Oe... In a tImI . " l d 1 k ." VOIce. oe, come an 00 at It. He would not hurry. He was push- ing a chair under one end of the heavy roll of carpet and he finished what he was doing before he followed her to the back door, but, once there, he stared for a long time in the last of the day- light at the water sliding and caressing round the lowest step. There was plenty of go in it yet, that was certain, and the rain had come again as quietly as the dark. "Could you manage a trip to the roof, Mother?" he said at last. Immediately, Ady began to weep with innocent anguish. "I'll die In my bed," she said. "Get on the roof as soon as you like. I'll die in my bed." "Now then, Mother," Joe said, and then he reflected. Ady, with her ar-